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Having local superiority with panzers means nothing unless they crack th reds and quickly.

It does mean something if they overrun enemy formations, thus thinning out the front. Plus, they need to shorten the frontline to free up forces to re-capture Italy and to keep a reserve down there. This would help the Russians, too, but I think the EuroAxis are more in need of troops than the Reds. Would be interesting to have more points of views, or at least more maps, though.

Royal Carnage

Recap: Operation Legion is as good as over. This chapter will mostly look at other part of the world during the later part of Operation Legion.

December 30th, 1940

Summerville did some patrolling with the remaining British naval strike force in the Pacific. They intercepted a smaller Japanese navy which previously had been in combat with the Americans. It became a fairly easy battle for the Brits and they only took a few smaller hits. Their counterpart took a lot of punishment but managed to disengage, leaving only the light cruiser Yubari slowly sinking in their wake. Several Japanese capitals would have to lie in dry dock for quite some time for repairs after this.

Sommerville pulled back for a while after this, repairing the few ships which had received light shelling.

February 2nd-3rd, 1941

After retaking Taiwan, the empire of Japan lashed out on the Philippines. Earlier it was fairly strongly defended but much of these forces had now perished on Taiwan which left the Philippines weak. In order to help their Allies, the British leadership once again sent out Admiral Summerville. He managed to intercept a few Japanese transport flotillas leaving the island on February 2nd. One flotilla was sunk but the others managed to flee back to the port in Lingayen. As the Royal Navy in the Pacific had sunk quite a few Japanese transports already, it was believed that they would get serious transport difficulties of they lost a couple more.

Admiral Summerville sent out three of his four CAGs to bomb the transports in port, hoping to sink yet some more. After sinking several Japanese transports in Indonesia, it could be a significant event to sink these remaining four. Still, he feared the Imperial Japanese Navy lurking close by and kept one CAG with the fleet.

On the main island of the Philippines, the few Allied forces around struggled for survival.

February 4th, 1941

The IJN was indeed lurking close by. Admiral Yamamoto himself crashed into Summerville with a mighty fleet. The Japs, however, had supply problems but it mattered little. With three CAGS on port-strike mission, Summerville soon ended up in a trying situation and chose to disengage.

He managed, to some extent thanks to the Japanese lack of supply, to flee with all his ships. Several ships, including the mighty carrier Illustrious and two heavy cruisers, were in a terrible state, listing and smoking like coal power plants. With the help of a tropical rain weather, the Royal Navy task force managed to slip away and head for a safe port for serious repairs. This day belonged to the IJN. They were obviously not broken and the Japanese army was just about to crush the Philippines.

The battle of the Pacific had just taken a tumble for the worse.

February 5th-6th, 1941

During Operation Legion, the frontline in Former Yugoslavia had hardly moved at all. Nevertheless, British surveillance spotted three Italian submarines in the port of Cetinje. They immediately called in Air Marshal Tedder and his three fighter groups of Spitfires. The winter weather was not too good but the submarines had little air protection and the port had no anti-aircraft capability which made Tedder’s job fairly easy.

Two flotillas of submarines were sunk but it is believed a fragment of the third flotilla (the 72nd) manage to sneak out of port during the night of the 6th. Still, if that escape indeed was a reality, it would take some time to repair the flotilla.

February 8th, 1941

Yellow: sept 1st, 1940 Orange: nov 20th, 1940

1. In the far north of the German-Soviet border, little has happened during the last three winter months. Wehrmacht made a push during the autumn but have apparently directed their forces elsewhere during the winter. It might also be affected with the defensible terrain there (or dodging “General Winter”).

2. In the center, the Germans have been more successful and even more so in the south with the defeat of the Soviet-puppet, Bulgaria. Italy has, in the face of the loss of their own capital, been pushing the Red Army back quite dramatically. Soviet has lost about half of Former Romania. It does not seem, however, like the Italians have forces enough to use the vacuum after Bulgaria and push for Turkey or northern Greece – and neither Soviet or Britain have been pushing there either.

3. In the southern part of Former Yugoslavia and Albania, Italy and Britain have quite large contingents of forces. In early winter, Italy managed some victories; mostly due to British supply problems leaving units weak. After the initiation of Operation Legion, this front died of quite effectively.

Winter and a successful Operation Legion seem to be the reason for the slower Axis advance against Soviet. Nevertheless, the Red Army is ruthlessly being pushed back without any real chance of counter-attacks. So far, they have lost very few units and remain fairly strong. According to the Soviet leadership, it is just a matter of time until the Axis manage to surround units and they urge Allies to continue with their nibbling attacks on Axis – suggesting both new attacks in Italy or maybe through Bulgaria to cut the Italians off.

February 8th, 1941

1. The main objective with Operation Legion was reached – the conquest of Rome. After stealing the Italian stockpile and defeating an army of Italians and Germans in the L’Aquila pocket, the Brits left Italy without casualties. German units are recapturing the area. All Italian units here seem to have been lost.

2. The American managed to keep Axis reinforcements of the back of the Brits, thus meeting their objectives. However, when leaving for the ships, about 8 American infantry divisions were overrun by German panzers and lost. This was, needless to say, a disaster.

3. During the last days of Operation Legion, a collection of green divisions coming straight out of Britain, made a landing on the Italian heel, surrounding and defeating an Italian division.

4. North Africa is safely in British hands. However, an Italian theatre HQ had retaken an undefended port – but not causing much concern.

5. Greece has become a British head ache. The best units of the British army are tied up here and due to coming and going supply problems, it is difficult to plan the defense. Due to Operation Legion, this front has been calm a few months, but it might not last long. Also, the force-vacuum left by Bulgaria is worrying. Something must be done or changed here.

February 8th, 1941

After the big war conference in late July 1940, United Kingdom took the responsible of more than double their tank arsenal. These tank divisions are soon ready for deployment. With these tanks it will possible to enduringly challenge The Third Reich on land.

February 8th, 1941

According to British spies in Italy, they are suffering some 10% decrease in industrial output due to lack of rare materials. It is not a major result but must in any case cause the Italian leadership grief and concern. Even though they seem to already be building a stockpile on fuel it might become a problem as they have been building some tank divisions. Perhaps, as their entire navy has been sunk, fuel might not be a problem for them.

Japan is of course better off. Still, bearing in mind the war is far from over, they are quite low on energy and fuel (and money). Perhaps the ongoing convoy war can bring them either closed factories or engine stop for their navies. Future will tell.

………………………..Future planning:

A few quite successful operations have left my armies and navies in quite disarray. It’s time for some serious reorganizations. I want to form powerful and well combined task forces with my navy, Also, I want the Americans, burdened with heavy losses and zero manpower, to back me up in Greece so I can free some of my veteran (supply-drinking) troops for other duties. Some successful Axis convoy-warring in combo with weak convoy build-up will also force me to close a few resource routes. After the conquest of Rome, resources are my least problem. Then I have three smaller operations coming up the next few months to occupy me while I reorganize and prepare the biggie.

Operation Itch: I’ll send an army corps to deal with Ethiopia. It’s rather a cosmetic operation, finally eradicating Axis from Africa, but I believe I can spare 5 divisions for a little while. And it will feel so good to be rid of the Itch of Ethiopia.

Operation Archer: Air Marshal Bowhill will lead the attack on the port of Den Haag to sink the German battle cruiser Gneisau. Luftwaffe will surely expect this and hard air battles are to expect – if the German leadership do not just give up the lone battle cruiser and focus his fighter-cover elsewhere.

Operation Viking: This will be the most important operation of early spring. With remaining Kriegsmarine under siege in Amsterdam, the Danish Isles is open for amphibious attacks. It is doubtful Germany has left them strongly defended – as they have so many other fronts to cover. Opening the sound is crucial for the major attack on The Third Reich…

Hopefully, the Americans will keep the Jap busy in the Pacific. Soviet will suffer and be forced back, but that only suits the plan. Germany need to be stretched thin…

It's beginning to look a bit like an Allied Victory in the near future, if the Germans doesn't manage a breakthrough in Russia that is, because if they win there, the Allies will lose the war. No matter what the US or the UK does. So it's very much in the air at the moment.

this continues to be a brilliant AAR, really like the ebb and flow and the very dynamic set of strategies. Do rather fear your Russian player is defending too far forward and playing into Germany's strengths, but then it also helps that the UK is so active in the Balkans

Remember, whatever the question, the answer on 18 September is Yes ...

I'm really starting to feel sorry for the poor Axis navies. Apart from Japan, they seem to have zero chance against your excellent leadership.
Japan seems to be lacking in good naval doctrines. A bit surprising, considering the challenge...

These armoured divisions should give the Axis hell in the upcoming chapters

I think that the biggest problem for the Allies is the sorry state of the US military. Also, they probably don't have much MP, so it will be hard for them to replace the losses. Still, if the Axis is not able to knock Russia out of war in 1941-1942, they are doomed.

5 armour divisions in kiel..finally an allied win as i have maintained all along.

But seriously i think u really need to thin out greece,u actually outnumber the italians there,i say maybe even withdraw from greece slowly and put everything for a straight assault at berlin.The kreigsmarine is dead or half wasted in docks so there shouldn't be problems with landings.But ,withdrawing from greece,gathering the force,loading properly will take time.Time russia doesn't have.
Anyway this could be a make or break operation but if u can land around15-20 infantry and 5 armour divs then it should have quite a good chance of success.

My AAR on the use of the 3 brigade model for germany.Red baron's Revenge on the aar forums

Yes retaking the Danish islands and not over commit in Greece sounds like a good plan. But would the Germans really risk loosing the port to their underbelly once more?

The eastern front moves more slowly than I expected.. but the Germans has fought and won some rough terrain in Romania despite winter so it might be downhill from here. Anyways it's great to see screens from this front since this front really shows which minute of the game you are playing at.

Russian player from this game here. As usual I'll add a few observations.

The pressure from the constant barrage of Axis attacks and resulting losses are mentally distressing. A single mistake can have disasterous conseqences. But so far in the game I've kept it together and managed to balance my defence.

Someone suggested that my front is too far forward. I totally understand your point and the situation forces me to be very sensitive towards German movements. Also, as mentioned earlier I'm choosing my battles. Whenever I'm facing superior forces in open terrain I fall back and retreat my front rather than getting my a** kicked.

My major concern now is that German forces are picking up momentum when operation Legion has come to an end. He is pushing towards Odessa and the black sea and I still got forces in Romania.

My major concern now is that German forces are picking up momentum when operation Legion has come to an end. He is pushing towards Odessa and the black sea and I still got forces in Romania.

The Soviets can survive without Romania or even Ukraine if necessary. Moscow is the key - I doubt that you will recover if you lose Moscow, but fortunately for the Allies, the Germans are not THAT successful yet.

5 armour divisions in kiel..finally an allied win as i have maintained all along.

But seriously i think u really need to thin out greece,u actually outnumber the italians there,i say maybe even withdraw from greece slowly and put everything for a straight assault at berlin.The kreigsmarine is dead or half wasted in docks so there shouldn't be problems with landings.But ,withdrawing from greece,gathering the force,loading properly will take time.Time russia doesn't have.
Anyway this could be a make or break operation but if u can land around15-20 infantry and 5 armour divs then it should have quite a good chance of success.

You make some good points, but remember that even a small corps of German armour would be more than enough to tackle CptEasy's armed forces, since the Panzers are likely to be more advanced, more experienced and with better leaders than the British ones. That said, every armoured unit that is taken away from the Russian front (or not sent there in the first place) is a win for the Allied cause, so I do agree that this will probably confirm an Allied win.

I think that the biggest problem for the Allies is the sorry state of the US military. Also, they probably don't have much MP, so it will be hard for them to replace the losses.

This is true. US is not even close to fill up their production queue with ground troops. Only very few infantry units are being produced and instead there are some pretty old-school LARM units coming up. They consume less MP per IC and their speed can be of good use - even if their actuall fighting capability will be just as poor as their infantry.

Originally Posted by Leviathan07

If you can repeat your stockpile seizing operation with Berlin, the war should be as good as won!!

Mmm... If Operation Viking is a success, that is an option.

Originally Posted by AUSTERLITZ

Anyway this could be a make or break operation but if u can land around15-20 infantry and 5 armour divs then it should have quite a good chance of success.

Yes - that is more or less what I am thinking of. Question is - where to put them.

Royal Carnage

Chapter XIV - A Trio of Operations

Human Players: Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA, Soviet, Canada*
*An oldie when it comes to strategy board games but noob when it comes to HoI has joined in

Recap: Operation Legion has send European Axis reeling. The Operation, and warring in the pacific, has likewise taxed the Americans very hard. UK will focus on a couple of smaller operations while making some larger strategical reorganizations of army and fleet - preparing for the biggie.

Operation Itch
February 23rd, 1941

An army consisting of a single army corps with five divisions was used for Operation Itch; Three regular infantry divisions, 1 motorized and 1 marine division. Three ports were taken to make sure supply was ample. The initial resistance was close to zero.

March 11th, 1941

Three weeks into Operation Itch and Adis Abeba, the capital (and only VP), was under attack. Haile Selassie made a brave stand with the few men he had at hand.

March 21st, 1941

The battle of Adis Abeba took ten days. It was ten days of search and ‘scare’ tactics. The Ethiopians had little of actual resistance to offer the well drilled Brits. Not a single British soldier was killed in combat - and the majority of Ethiopians surrendered – not really wanting do die in the name of fascism.

With this, Ethiopia crumbled and their armies melted away. The British leadership left two divisions to retake lands outside Ethiopia, now belonging to Italy, while the other three returned to the Red Sea to be picked up by transports. They had other missions awaiting them. Operation Itch had been a quite expected success.

Entire Africa now either belonged to the Allies or was neutral.

Operation Archer
March 2nd-3rd, 1941

Bowhill’s naval bombers fell out of the sky with no forewarning. The lone battle cruiser lay at the same time as before, which was hardly surprising as the port was under siege. The mighty ship had, however been repaired almost totally and was fully organized. Den Haag had no anti-aircraft and as no immediate Luftwaffe showed up, the naval bombers could swarm around the battle cruisers, dropping bombs and torpedoes at it. Its AA was quite heavy and few planes came close enough to drop very accurate salvos. Still, a few hit and suddenly flames shone bright at its aft.

During the second attack, Luftwaffe intercepted the naval bombers which quickly retreated, their mission not finished. Instead, Portal lead his Hurricanes to engage the enemy fighters. Initially, they got the initiative but the German leadership sent new fighters and it turned into a deadly cat and mouse hunt where Germany wanted to avoid dog fights but tried to intercept the bombing runs, which was reinitiated when the Hurricanes over Den Haag did not meet resistance.

March, 1941

During the Operation Archer, the main part of Kriegsmarine, being under siege in the port of Amsterdam, made several sorties trying to break free. Royal Navy held them back but at a terrible price. The British leadership was completely taken aback with the severe losses against an already crippled Kriegsmarine which did not even have enough screens to protect their fearsome capitals.

One of the reasons may have been that the bulk of Royal Navy left around the British Isles consisted of older ships - but not to an extent were losses like this was acceptable. With Operation Viking about to be launched, it was crucial to keep the Kriegsmarine in Amsterdam.

As a slightly desperate maneuver, the only remaining Mediterranean task force left its duty of keeping the remaining Regia Marina (mostly consisting of their battle ships) to instead deal with the Kriegsmarine. This meant that the Regia Marine was free to roam the Med, but the leadership hoped they would not dare that.

Late March, 1941

After a long airborne struggle, leaving almost entire RAF in a sorry state, the Gneisenau was sunk in the port of Den Haag. The ship wreck was surrounded with a ridiculous amount of crashed fighters and bombers. With that, as Operation Archer had met its objective, it was considered a success. If it in reality was a meaningful operation is another matter.

In any case, the outcome of Operation Archer was dwarfed by the intensive naval clashed in the Coast of Holland. Royal navy had lost 9 ships of which two was capitals. Until the last clash, the Germans had only lost a light cruiser.
In the end, meeting the Mediterranean Task Force, the weakened Kriegsmarine met its doom. They lost their remaining screens and the battle cruiser Schlesien without sinking any British ships. The remaining Kriegsmarine, only consisting of its most fearsome capitals – Bismarck, Tirpitz and the Graf Zeppelin – would have huge trouble to operate without reinforcements.

This also meant Operation Viking could be initiated…

Operation Viking
April 2nd, 1941

Transport task forces and a quite weak escort task force (no naval resistance was expected) on their way to their specific locations carrying an army consisting of three full army corps.

April 6th, 1941

Operation Viking is in full swing. With the airfield in Fredrikshavn in Allied possession they could try to give the ground forces back up. The response from Luftwaffe was fearsome and RAF was already weakened from Operation Archer and had not completely recovered. They needed fighters from USAF to aid them, but still, very few allied bombs fell over the Germans. Instead, the army corps in charge of taking Copenhagen received quite some loads from German bombers.

April 13th, 1941

About two weeks into Operation Viking and things seem to unfold according to plans. The Germans seem not to have forces available to threat mainland Denmark. Kriegsmarine, as expected, had nothing with which to aid their troops and they did not drop any paras either. Even if being extremely bloody, the battle of Copenhagen was slowly tipping to the British favor.

April 16th, 1941

Two and a half weeks into Operation Viking and the German defenders of Copenhagen gave up after turning the Danish capital into rubble. The Brits losses were a lot higher than reported due to the quite continuous German bombings. With this, the objectives were met and the majority of the British attack-force was pulled back to UK as the Royal Navy would have no problem to guard the Danish Isles and thus refusing them to the Heer.

With the Baltic Sea open, the entire German north coast was under threat. The British leadership wanted them to reinforce it as they had no plans to attack from this direction. They hoped the German leadership saw Operation Viking as s logic step before a larger attack on Berlin in the same manner as Operation Legion – and that Wehrmacht would act accordingly. If they did, that would serve the Allied plans greatly.

Pacific
February 15th, 1941

At this date, entire Indonesia (all ports and valuable provinces) was back under Allied control. With Japan re-conquering Taiwan and now attacking Philippines, they had no resources to threat Allied movement in this area, except sinking a few convoys. It was important to keep valuable oil and rare materials from them.

February 23rd, 1941

After taking some painful naval losses when the Japs initiated the attack on the Philippines, the American navy had started to take back a little of the initiative. Still, the Imperial Japanese Navy had a mighty arsenal which the Americans had severe problems dealing with themselves.

For this reason, the British leadership had left a powerful task force in the Pacific, under the competent leadership of Admiral Sommerville. He had already clashed with the Japs a number of times and sunk a lot more than he had lost. Still, he had lost the last battle and was eager for revenge.

As it turned out, he got what he wanted in the Sibuyan Sea. Still, the cunning admiral Yamamoto managed to sneak away with his damaged fleet without losing any ships. Slightly disappointed, Admiral Sommerville had to return to port for repairs even if rather few ships had been damaged. HMS Effingham had been seriously damaged and needed a dry dock. Fortunately, recently repaired ships were waiting to take Effingham’s place in the task force. The IJN would soon get the Royal Navy patrolling the Philippines again.

March 16th, 1941

British and American admirals made a mistake in their communications, and two of their task forces navigated very close to each others. Suddenly a huge Japanese fleet was upon them, but it seemed like also the Jap had made a mistake in their navigation and their two task forces were far from in proper order.

The Allies managed better than the IJN to keep a fairly good positioning and the Jap got to suffer for it. It came as a slight shock to the Allies when a brand new super heavy battle ship, the Yamato, opened fire with a tremendous barrage. HMS Prince of Wales was hit but thereafter the Allied battle ship targeted the behemoth. The USS Arizona managed a lucky shot which blew off the entire bridge of the Yamato. When the super heavy battle ship started to drift it became an easy prey.

The IJN pulled back after what must be received as a terrible disaster for them.

March 24th, 1941

After the costly naval defeats, the IJN pulled back from the Philippines. As the US managed to get reinforcements to the island, the balance soon tipped over to the Americans. It also seemed the Allied convoy war had been successful as the remaining Japanese infantry divisions lacked supply. Philippines would soon be rid of the Japanese troops. Japan has obviously lost their ability to be on the offensive.

Authors note: Japan and USA have sunk a quite awesome amount of ships from each other and with the Royal Navy prowling about, the Jap leadership must realize they have inferior naval forces. They won’t to much more claiming…

.......................
During this spring, Japanese effort against the Bears tail lessened. On the other hand, as Germany did not realocate much ground forces towards the small British operations, Soviet resieved an even stronger pressure than before and retreated at a steady pace. They have not lost anything significant when it comes to troops, but with the speed the Wehrmacht push forwards, they might see Moscow before Christmas.

In next chapter however, the new British Army Corps of tanks will be put into use... for better or for worse.